Mechanical movement



March 7, 1939.

G. E. TAYLOR ET AL ,149,321

MECHANICAL MOVEMENT Filed June 10, 1936 Sheets-Sheet l March 7, 1939.

2 Sheets Sheet 2 6 Z 3nventol5 I 2 g,

M attorneg G. E. TAYLOR ET AL MECHANICAL MOVEMENT Filed June 10, 19:36

V BE

Patented Mar. 7, 1939 UNITED STATES PATIENT Q MECHANICAL MOVEMENT George E. Taylor and. Frank A. Smith, Charleston W. Va.

' Application June 10, 1936, SerialNo. 84,528

13 Claims. (01. 74-60) invention is ;a mechanical movement of joints at both ends, and the throw of the wobble the wobble plate type, for transforming rotary plate would determine the amount of reciprocamotionintoa sinuous or substantially sine wave tion of the pistons-in thecylinders. Such throw motion about the same axis, or for transforming could, of course, be readily increased or decreased a similar sinuous motion about an axis into roeither by changing the angle of the bearing faces 'tary motion' about the same axis. To put' the of the collars of the guides or by increasing or matter in another way, a given point on the wobdecreasing the diameter of the wobble plate. bleplatemoves back and forth parallel to the The described mechanical movement might axis or main shaft, and at thesame time travels also be used in pumps, compressors, washing ma- L0 in arotary path about the same axis. The result chines, churns, mixing devices, etc. The invenof-these two movements is that a given point on tion, however, is not limited to any particular use.

the wobble plate traces a sinuous path, which is The main features of the invention having thus belieVed'to be a true sine wave. been described, reference will now be made to the 1 W-hilewobble plates or swash plates are old and annexed drawings representing the present pre- 5 well known, none'of them so far as applicants ferred embodiment of the invention.

are aware, have a combined rotary movement In these drawings: about an axis and simultaneously therewith a Fig. l is a side view of the mechanical movereciprocating movement parallel to the axis, ment; wherebya given point on the wobble plate follows Fig. 2 is a top view of same;

asinuous path completely encircling the axis of i Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 33 of 0 rotation, the path of travel of a particular point Fig. 2; v I i also fallingisubstantially within the surface of a Fig. 4 is a section on the line 44 of Fig. 3, and

cylinder; the axis of which is coincident with the Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the axis ofrotation. new type of movement achieved by the present Morespecifically, the mechanical movement of invention.

this invention comprises a wobble plate which is Referring now to these drawings, in which simrnounted ona ball-hub, which is fixed or keyed to iliar reference characters indicate similar parts,

the' shaft; the exterior of the ball-hub is subthe improved mechanical movement comprises a stan-tiall-y spherical, this hub: being provided with main shaft 2, which may be rotatably supported 30 eitherone or two slots. These slots, while arcuin bearings carried by the supports 4. On this '30 ate, "extend longitudinally with the shaft. shaft there is keyed a ball-hub 6, by means of The wobble plate is provided with a central keys or splines 8, seated in suitable keyways in bearing or aperture which fits over the ball-hub the shaft and ball-hub. The exterior surface of andis-provided with lugs which travel back and the ball-hub 6 is substantially spherical.

forth iri'the arcuate slots. This ball-hub is provided with at least one 3-,

Rot'atably mountedon the shaft, on opposite arcuate slot l0 and preferably with a diametrisidesof the ball-hub, is a substantially cylindrically opposite similar slot l2,-these slots being in cal guide member, provided with a collar. Each planes parallel to the axis of the shaft 2.

lateral face of these collars issetat anangle to A wobble plate I 4 is provided near its center the axis of the shaft'andthe angleatwhich it is with annular bearing collars l6; mounted for Set determines the t fi the wobble plate. free rotation in the wobble plate, in suitable The lateral facesofthese guide memberscould holes between the collars i6, is a pair of drive bear directly. against the wobble plate, but preflugs l8, one of which engages in and slides in the erablybean-against anti-frictionbearing memslot l0 and the other of which engages in and bers. which in turn. bear directly against the slides in the slot H2. The plate I4 will therefore 45 wobble plate. rotate with ball-hub 6 and shaft 2, but also can .Whilethedescribed mechanicalmovement is rock back and forth with respect to the ball hub capablezof. manyuses, one of its-important uses and shaft.

is in a rotary engine of the type having cylinders Rotatably mounted on the shaft on one side arranged; around themain axis and--- parallel of the wobble plate is a guide member 20, which 0 thereto,suclr cylinders, when the engine is operis provided with an angularly set collar 22, which I ating, rotating about said-main axis. The conbears against anti-friction bearings 23, which in necting rods-of: the pistons-of such cylinders would turn bear against a collar 24 next to the wobble be:.-connectedinea-r the peripheryof the wobble plate. An additional collar could be interposed 5 plate-.and to the pistons throughball and socket between collar 22 and the ball bearings 23', if

desired. The inner face of the inner collar 26 bears against the wobble plate, against the annular collar I6 thereof, and could be secured thereto, if desired.

A similar guide member 30 is mounted for free rotation on the shaft 2 on the other side of the wobble plate, this guide member having an angularly set collar 32 bearing against similar antifriction bearings 25. A collar 26 completes the bearing assembly, this collar bearing against and, if desired, being secured to the right hand collar I6 of the wobble plate. An additional collar could be interposed between collar 32 and the bearings 25, if desired.

Keyed to the shaft 2 is a gear wheel 36, which drives a gear wheel 38, which is fixed to a collar 40 and to this collar 40 is fixed a gear wheel 42. Gears 38 and 42 and collar 40 rotate freely on the shaft 43, suitably secured in the bearing supports 4.

Gear 42 meshes with. a gear 44 rotatably mounted on shaft 2. Gear 44 is fixed to guide member 30 and rotates therewith.

On the other side of the wobble plate a precisely similar set of gears is mounted, and the corresponding gears are indicated by primed reference characters.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the ratio between the described gears is such that when the shaft 2 makes one revolution, the gear 44 and guide members and make eight revolutions. However, it should be understood, of course, that this gear ratio is a matter of choice and can be varied at will, and furthermore, that bevel, spur, or any suitable type of gears could be used.

The mechanical movement operates as follows: If the shaft 2 is rotated once, the guide members 20 and 30 are rotated eight times, by reason of the 8 to 1 gear ratio, which causes the wobble plate to make eight complete oscillations. At the same time that the wobble plate is completing these eight oscillations, the plate itself, by reason of the fact that the plate rotates with the ballhub 5 by reason of the lugs l8, will complete one revolution about the shaft 2. The result of such a'movement is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 5, which shows the approximate path followed by a point at or near the periphery of the wobble plate when the shaft 2 makes one complete revolution. Such a point, therefore, would make one complete revolution about the axis 2 of the shaft 2 and at the same time would complete eight vibrations or oscillations in a direction substantially parallel to the axis 2, so as to follow substantially the sinuous or approximately sine wave path shown in Fig. 5.

Conversely, if power is applied to the wobble plate, as would be the case if embodied in an engine, by means of piston rods pushing against it from one or both sides in a direction parallel to the axis of shaft 2, at regular spaced points around the wobble plate, as suggested by the arrows 50, this force against the wobble plate immediately causes it to rotate and this rotational movement is transmitted through the lugs l8 and the slots l0 and I2 to the ball-hub 6 and thus to the shaft. Any other resulting forces are also communicated to the shaft 2 through the described train of gears. The circumferential movement of the wobble plate about the shaft 2 is determined and controlled by the guide members 2|] and 30 and the train of gears meshing with said guide members.

The connecting rods of the pistons being in direct contact with the wobble plate, and the rotating guides, causes it to rotate and its perimeter to oscillate in a horizontal direction, parallel with the main shaft, creating a basic, uniform, regular and continuous wave-1ine motion, as shown by Fig. 5.

More briefly expressed, the wobble plate is keyed to the shaft to rotate therewith; as it rotates, it rocks or oscillates about an axis which is transverse or perpendicular to the axis of the shaft.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been described in some detail, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise details, but may be carried out in other ways.

We claim as our invention:

1. A mechanical movement comprising a shaft and a wobble plate, and mounting means for the wobble plate for causing it to rotate positively to oscillate thereon in a direction lengthwise of Y the shaft a plurality of times for each revolution of the shaft, whereby a given point on the wobble plate will follow a regular, uniform, sinusoidal path around said shaft.

4. A mechanical movement comprising a shaft, a ball hub secured on said shaft, a wobble plate mounted on said ball hub to turn therewith and to oscillate thereon in a direction lengthwise of the shaft, guide members freely rotatable on the shaft and provided with angular bearing faces operatively engaging the wobble plate on opposite sides thereof, and means gearing said guide members to the shaft so as to rotate therewith.

5. A mechanical movement comprising a shaft, a ball hub secured on said shaft, a wobble plate mounted on said ball hub to turn therewith and to oscillate thereon in a direction lengthwise of the shaft, guide members freely rotatable on the shaft and provided with angular bearing faces operatively engaging the wobble plate on opposite sides thereof, anti-friction means interposed between said angular bearing faces and the wobble plate, and means gearing said guide members to the shaft so as to rotate therewith.

6. A mechanical movement for converting rotary movement of a shaft into a compound movement of rotation around the axis of the shaft and reciprocation lengthwise of said shaft, and conversely, comprising a wobble plate mounted to rotate with the shaft and to oscillate back and forth lengthwise thereof a plurality of times for each revolution of the shaft, whereby a point on the wobble plate will follow a continuous, uniform, regular curved path around the shaft as an axis. I

'7. A mechanical movement for converting rotary movement of a shaft into a compound movement of rotation around the axis of the shaft and reciprocation lengthwise of said shaft, and conversely, comprising a ball hub secured to the shaft, a wobble plate mounted on said hub, to

turn with said hub, and to oscillate back and forth on said hub lengthwise of the shaft, whereby a given point on the wobble plate will follow a regular, uniform, sinusoidal path around the shaft as an axis.

8. A mechanical movement for converting rotary movement of a shaft into a compound movement of rotation around the axis of the shaft and reciprocation lengthwise of'said shaft, and conversely, comprising a ball hub secured to the shaft, a wobble plate mounted on said hub to a wobble plate mounted on said hub to rotate therewith, and to oscillate back and forth thereon in a direction lengthwise of the shaft a plural-.

ity of times for each revolution of the shaft, guide members freely rotatable on the shaft, provided with angular bearing faces operatively engaged with the wobble plate, anti-friction bearing means interposed between the said angular bearing faces and the wobble plate, and means for gearing said guide members to the shaft so as to rotate therewith.

10. A mechanical movement for converting rotary movement of a shaft into a compound movement of rotation around the axis of the shaft and reciprocation lengthwise of said shaft, and conversely, comprising a ball hub secured to the shaft and slotted in a direction lengthwise of the 5 bearing faces operatively engaged with the wobble plate, and means for gearing said guide members to the shaft so as to rotate therewith.

11. A mechanical movement comprising in combination a wobble plate, means for positively rotating said wobble plate about a longitudinal axis and means engageable with the wobble plate for causing it to oscillate back and forth about a transverse axis as it rotates about its longitudinal axis.

12. A mechanical movement comprising in combination a shaft, a wobble plate carried on said shaft and keyed thereto so as to rotate therewith, guide means, rotatable on said shaft and engageable with said wobble plate, for causing it to oscillate back and forth as it rotates about said shaft, about an axis transverse of the axis of said shaft.

13. A mechanical movement comprising a wobble plate keyed to and mounted to rotate with a longitudinal axis and to oscillate back and forth 30 GEORGE E. TAYLOR. FRANK A. SMITH. 

